Memory Lane
by Sketchy Studios
Summary: Washington get some time to learn about each other while on the mysterious Island planet of Agent Illinois. I Couldn't find Red Vs Blue as a subcategory under T.V. shows, so I opted for HALO instead, but found 'Freelancer,' SO SORRY FOR THE WRONG CATEGORY- I WAS DESPERATE. xDD NOTE: I do not own the characters mentioned in this story! All rights go to Rooster Teeth!
1. Observation

Carolina sat down in the warm sand after her and Washington landed on the island planet. She felt ill and needed a moment to settle down. After a second of breathing, she removed her helmet and threw it across the beach, disappointed when it landed facing her. She scowled at it and lied down, her head not quite touching the sand, but creeping ever closer as she sunk into it.

A native bird flew by, dropping what looked like a feather. Carolina sat up, snatched the thing out of the sand and examined it closely when he walked up.

"Carolina?" She turned around to see Washington with his helmet off and blonde-tipped hair blowing in the gentle breeze, faintly smiling.

"Yeah, Wash?" Carolina asked, first getting a chance to study is features in the soft light. He looked normal from a distance, but with a careful or trained eye, one could see the scar that wrapped around half of his neck from when Epsilon had to be removed, the odd scar bisecting his lips at the edges, and countless other scars that only he knew the stories to. His eyes were a dull grey, having once been a bright blue, but losing their color and getting accompanied by dark circles and bags under his eyes from countless restless nights. Both of the ex-agents knew this truth well. Since joining Freelancer, they didn't get many restful nights, and out of those few, all were broken up into pieces, by the agents waking up in the middle of the night in panic and a frenzy, reaching for their gun to shoot someone, something, or in a select few cases, themselves. They theorized that it was the pain of the Alpha A.I. that was tortured, fragmented and paired with specific Freelancers. Sometimes, an A.I. wouldn't go to their best-matched agent, and bad things would happen. Carolina shuddered at the memory of Washington wailing for someone to get Epsilon out of his head as he clawed mercilessly at his neck, trying to rip Epsilon out. His cries could be heard all throughout the Mother of Invention, and then he was unconscious for a few days an-

Carolina cut her train of thought off, continuing to observe Wash's features. She focused on his coffee-brown hair that was bleached at the tips and moved oh-so-gently with the island's breeze. He, along with many other Freelancers, had a crease between his eyebrows. Everyone used to always try to lift the mood aboard the MOI, but they were always _miserable_. Carolina found herself looking back at Washington's eyes, at the dulled grey that was once a vibrant blue, but still had a sparkle of happiness in it.

He could be handsome.

Wash could be handsome if it weren't for the broken mind that he has, the depression and the countless nightmares. Somehow, Epsilon still had some control over his dreams.

Carolina remembered a time when Wash had woken up, in tears and screming for someone to kill him. It had taken Carolina everything that she could do to calm him down and remove his finger away from the trigger of his pistol. He told Carolina later that he ha dreamed about the deaths of all of his Freelancer friends, him havig been the cause of their deaths.

Carolina frowned. That was what Epsilon did to him. Destroyed his sanity and forced him to see himself as a monster that he was not.

"Carolina?" His soft voice, now edged with worry, took Carolina out of her thoughts.

"Sorry, hi."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I was just... thinking."

He sat down next to her and laughed awkwardly, looking out to the ocean. "You were staring at me."

"I was just remembering Freelancer." She responded flatly, giving him a crooked smile. It had been so long since she smiled so awkwardly like that.

"Yeah? What about it?"

"The A.I.'s." Carolina saw him tense at the word, but he regained his composure rather quickly and continued on. It showed his improvement as a solider. From timid and easily hurt to able to regain equanimity within seconds.

"Yeah..I don't think I could ever forget that.." He sighed, turning his gaze from the water to her, and he smiled sadly.

"Sorry." Was all she said, resting her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her waist.


	2. Freelancer

"Do you miss Freelancer?" His voice, once again, jarred Carolina out of her thoughts, and she smiled.

"How could I not?"

"Yeah. I miss everyone,"

"Me too." Carolina said quietly, her voice cracking as a tear left her eye, rolling down her cheek. "I miss them all a lot"

"It wasn't your fault, you know."

Carolina looked over at him questioningly.

"That York died. It wasn't your fault."

How Wash knew her thoughts, she'll never know, but she took a shaky breath in, and looked back at the water.

"I left him after I betrayed him and threw him down an elevator shaft to die. How is it not my fault? He relied on me. I was his partner, meant to have his back and protect him at all costs. I was so selfish back then." Carolina hissed, having stood up to retreive her helmet. She never talked about her emotions, and she wasn't planning to. After she heard that Epsilon deconstructed, Carolina had wandered off for a few hours to mourn. No one knew where she went, and, despite the questioning looks that she got when she returned, she never told anyone what had happened. Not one of the Reds or Blues knew, and not even Wash knew that, during the hours hat she was gone, she cried the hardest that she had cried since York was killed.

"I need to freshen up." Carolina called coldly over her shoulder as she walked away from the oceanside. "I'll see you in a few."


	3. Happy Loneliness

Washington was alone again. he knew that he messed up, mentioning York. Carolina was still sensitive on the subject, and he knew that she still blamed himself.

"Carolina," he called out, standing up to follow her "I'm sorry."

She visibly flinched, and stopped dead in her tracks, turning around, smiling sadly. "No, _I'm_ sorry. That wasn't okay of me, and it was out of character. I should've just faced reality an-"

Washington cut her off with a laugh.

"What? Is this funny?" Carolina put her hands on her hips, glaring at him, and trying not to laugh herself.

"No, it's just that-" Washington wasn't able to finish his sentence before Carolina started laughing, too. They laughed together for a minute at their own awkwardness and childishness. They both were in cheery moods after that, telling funny stories from on the MOI, for example; when Carolina was passed out in the medical room, and Wash went to check on her and York, he asked about the 'side effects' of having an A.I. York told him that one of the side effects was an inverted penis, and Wash got flustered and awkward about it.

They went to their make-up base cheerful and almost in a drunken state from the endorphins.

"Night Wash"

"Night, Carolina" They hugged and went to their sleeping bags, falling asleep quickly.


End file.
